From left to right: President of self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity, President of self-proclaimed Republic of Abkhazia Sergey Bagapsh and President of self-proclaimed Dnestr Region Igor Smirnov are ready to replace Russia’s military by their peacekeepers.
Photo: Dmitry Lebedev
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Alliance of Unrecognized States
Leaders of unrecognized Abkhazia, South Ossetia and the Dnestr Region sealed a Declaration of Alliance for Democracy and Peoples’ Rights in Sukhumi Wednesday. It is not just economic and political cooperation, which is spelled out in the treaty. It is also creating joint peacekeeping forces that will replace peacekeepers of Russia.
On June 14, President of self-proclaimed Dnestr Region Igor Smirnov, President of self-proclaimed Republic of Abkhazia Sergey Bagapsh and President of self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity met in Sukhumi, Abkhazia, to seal a declaration, which wording, however, was apparently adjusted in view of the meeting of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his Georgian counterpart Mikhail Saakashvili that happened in St. Petersburg the day before.
“Today, we have again confirmed before the whole world our intentions to build independent democratic states,” Bagapsh said. “In any situation, it is necessary to take into account the opinion of the people, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin emphaized at the news conference in St. Petersburg. Our peoples have been living with Russia for centuries and will be further strengthening these relations of good neighbors.”
And everything became clear after this explicit statement of Bagapsh, including the incentives that prompted unrecognized presidents to meet straight after the meeting of presidents of Russia and Georgia. No matter what the results of St. Petersburg talks would have been, the purpose of Sukhumi summit was to counteract.
Apart from the Declaration of Alliance for Democracy and Peoples’ Rights, the greatest achievement of the summit, Kokoity said, was the answer to Georgian parliament, which had resolved to pull out Russia’s peacekeepers from his republic and would do the same in respect of Abkhazia in the near term.
“The pressure placed on Russia because of peacekeeping mission forced us to create joint peacekeeping forces,” Kokoity said. He added, however, there is no alternative to the presence of Russia’s peacekeepers in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but carelessly forgot to mention the Dnestr Region.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 15, 2006
|
|
|
